Peer Instruction in Physics & Astronomy

It's "a gem", according to this
December 2005 book review in The Physics Teacher.
The book includes hundreds of
ConcepTests, and was distributed FREE to most intro astro
instructors across the country. This is truly a community project,
designed to facilitate progress in astronomy education. A few
excerpts are available in
Word ,
PDF , or
PS format.

By encouraging student participation and interaction during the
lecture, Peer Instruction encourages students to critically think
through the arguments being developed, and to discuss their ideas and
insights with their neighbors. Peer Instruction is a form of
Collaborative Learning, one of the best researched pedagogical
techniques ever, with literally hundreds of studies that virtually
all document substantial improvements in student learning and
engagement. It also provides a relief from standard lecture format,
both for students and instructors.

Briefly, lectures are broken into sections. Start with
a brief, more-or-less standard format mini-lecture on one
of the fundamental concepts to be covered. This mini-lecture is then
followed by a ConcepTest
-- a short multiple-choice question that tests the
students' understanding. After one minute, the students record an
answer and are then asked to turn to their neighbors to try and
convince them of their answers. This invariably leads to animated
discussions. After another minute or so, the students are
asked to reconsider their answer and record it again. A quick poll is
taken so the instructor can decide whether to move on to the next
concept, or to continue on the same. This process may repeat
twice or 5 times until the end of the class.

Instant touchpad counting systems are available and quite handy
for the instructor, but Peer Instruction is not necessarily high tech!
Students can also print out and use simple flashcards
that are big and bold enough to be seen at the front of the classroom.

How do you possibly find time for all this polling and discussion?
It helps a lot to make sure that the students have read the material
in advance. I like to use a simple, adaptable
of which I provide an
Web-based reading quiz. Feel free to download and modify
the source page for your needs (e.g., for Netscape click View
in the Toolbar, then Page Source).

Peer Instruction was originally developed and implemented for
introductory Physics by Eric
Mazur at Harvard.
The improvements in student performance have been widely publicized in Sheila
Tobias' book "Revitalizing Undergraduate Science (Research Corporation, 1992).
For more details, check out these
references I've compiled, or Mazur's
PEER INSTRUCTION: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997).
Instructors have pointed out the benefits of teaching by questioning
over the more traditional approach of teaching by telling. This has
led to consistent, measurable short- and long-term improvement in
student performance. Student satisfaction with the courses have been
high. Instructors across the country, teaching in a variety of
institutions to widely differing student bodies, have noted similar
benefits.